Man, it's hard to keep up. There is so much good stuff being said. Michael Dettmers said the following in a post in the Inactive, about how Maharaji approached projects and the cost of same. Michael said:

Often, Maharaji would look at a budget and complain that it was too expensive. The first items he always questioned were the costs required to support the premies who would be working on the project. When we cut those back to the bare bones, he might decide to cut back on some of the requirements he had specified. Inevitably, thought, he would re-instate his original requirements, and then add a few more. Whatever budget we began with got completely blown and would have to be covered by another round of fundraising.

As has been said here quite a lot, in my opinion, the most damning thing about Maharaji isn't the alcoholism, or the drugs, or sex scandals, it's his almost complete, uncarring attitude towards the premies, even those who had dedicated their lives to him, at his direction. I highlighted Michael's comment above, which is yet another illustration of that.

But I have a question about the 707 that was a particular moral problem for me, and that was that the fundraising was done while lying to the premies about the fact that the money was going to a plane project.

If you recall, originally, a decision was made to not disclose anything about the 707, and the premies were asked to send in money monthly for 'a world tour.' Those of us in organizer positions in Elan Vital, were told to not disclose this, and to simply lie to the premies about what the money was for.

Second, like Michael said, the project kept running out of money, and we kept having to pitch to the premies that they had to send in more, even, finally, disclosing the existence of the plane because we were so desperate for cash.

Do either of you know how the decision to not disclose the existence of the plane was made? How closely was Maharaji involved in the funding issues regarding the plane?

I recall in about 1980, Dennis Marciniak, who was the President of Elan Vital at the time, told me that Maharaji was really upset that the plane project was out of money, and he wanted to plane so badly, and the apparently offered to turn over the cash he got from the money donated in the darshan line at an upcoming festival, to the plane project. This was, amazingly, presented as a statement of how sacrificing M was for the plane. I know this didn't happen, but do you recall any of that?

Do you guys know how much cash M would rake in at a darshan line in a big festival? One honcho who from the Pacific reported here that M would pick up a good $250 K at programs in Australia when he did darshan, in cash, and that she sometimes had to carry cash for his personal use accross borders for M's personal use.

Do you guys, or anyone else, know more about this?

From Michael Dettmers

If you recall, originally, a decision was made to not disclose anything about the 707, and the premies were asked to send in money monthly for 'a world tour.' Those of us in organizer positions in Élan Vital were told to not disclose this, and to simply lie to the premies about what the money was for. Do either of you know how the decision to not disclose the existence of the plane was made?

Frankly, I don’t recall that fundraising for the plane was kept a secret. I don’t see how that would that have been possible with premies from all over the world congregating in Miami to work on the project?

Having said that, however, let me provide some additional information about what was going on at the time the plane was acquired that may shed some light your question. At the beginning of the project, we had not yet determined the best way to own and operate the 707. If you recall my lengthy report about what took place in 1976 leading to the revival of devotion in 1977, I described a scene where Bob Mishler gave Maharaji two weeks notice to vacate the Malibu residence. Maharaji was determined that he would never be put in that situation again, which led to the restructuring and separation of his assets from those of Élan Vital.

It should not be surprising then that Maharaji felt he should own the 707. However, his lawyers strongly advised against this idea. We had run the numbers showing that the cost of owning, operating and maintaining the plane were astronomical and Maharaji simply didn’t have the personal funds to pay for it. Besides, they argued, even if he did have the funds, it made more sense to have the organizations that were created to spread his message pay for the plane. The tax savings alone convinced Maharaji that that was the wiser course of action.

By way of background, prior to the restructuring, Maharaji’s only source of funds were the gifts that premies gave him either in person, in the mail, or in darshan lines. Under the new structure, however, he would have to have a source of funds other than the gifts to pay for his lifestyle, upon which he paid all applicable taxes. In the 1977 audit we had established a precedent with the IRS that the “gifts of love” that were bestowed upon Maharaji were exempt from taxes. However, this situation could only be sustained if Maharaji could show that his lifestyle was not dependent upon receiving those gifts. If it was, then the gifts could be classified as income because they were his sole means of support. To address this concern, I focused my energies into creating taxable sources of income for him mainly by encouraging and facilitating premies who owned businesses to make Maharaji a shareholder in their enterprises. By 1980, Maharaji generated enough income to cover most of the basics of his then current lifestyle. However, he certainly could not have paid for the 707 out of those funds.

So, in the end, our tax lawyers prevailed and, as a result, we created the Élan Vital Foundation in Switzerland to coordinate Maharaji’s worldwide tours including the operation of the 707. Looking back more than 20 years, I can only surmise that, if there was any secrecy about the fundraising at the beginning of the project, it was because we weren’t sure how we were going to structure the whole operation.

How closely was Maharaji involved in the funding issues regarding the plane? Do you guys know how much cash M would rake in at a darshan line in a big festival? One honcho who from the Pacific reported here that M would pick up a good $250 K at programs in Australia when he did darshan, in cash, and that she sometimes had to carry cash for his personal use across borders for M's personal use.

Maharaji was only involved in the funding issues in as much as I gave him periodic reports on the financial state of the project. He definitely contributed some of the money he collected in darshan lines to the plane project as well as to his many other projects including improvements to his residences.

I agree with the person who reported that at a large festival M would pick-up in the neighborhood of $250K. As far as carrying cash, I know that when we traveled around the world in the 707, we carried large sums of cash to pay for fuel, ground services and/or to cover unexpected contingencies in situations where we could not establish credit terms. Of course, anything connected with the x-rated scene such as the purchase of wine, cognac, cigarettes, dope, etc. were always paid in cash. They were never part of the books and records, and all receipts were destroyed.

From Joe

At least in the beginning, it defintely was a secret. I was in Chicago when the fundraising began and it was all in the name of a 'world tour.' Then, in May, 1979, I was sent to IHQ, and that's when I first heard about the plane. When I got sent later that year to DC to be coordinator, it still wasn't known to the vast majority of community premies that there was a plane, and we were still fundraising for a 'world tour.'

Obviously, more and more premies began to find out about it as they got sent to Miami to work on the plane, and as I said, by sometime in 1980, in the course of several emergency fundraisers to keep the plane project from tanking, it was finally publicly revealed.

From la-ex

I believe M is involved with Deltek (probably gets a share of profits)in some way, and I think he stays in Don Delaskis mansion outside DC when he goes there...
I believe most of their money was made from Defense Department contracts..

Aa far as Amtext-he owns it completely.
Chuck Nathan originally owned it, but formally signed it over to M a few years ago.
The money generated by amtext goes into a fund for M that can be used by him for either personal or touring purposes.
Chuck explained that it is funneled through a complex set of arrangements that make it tax free or at least taxed less(he said it was a loophole type of rider that was passed by Congress to give rich people a tax loophole and way to keep their money more hidden).
I think the net total M takes in is about 2-3 million/yr from Amtext in the US, but there are also amtext operations in Europe...

From Michael Donner

joe...commenting briefly on the main point above...main point for me at least, re m's lack of care for the premies. most definetly he had little regard from start to finish. imagine any project, festival, situation where he and premies intersected...take a festival...of course he would want to cut back on the budget in areas that applied to premie comforts, conveniences, even simple normal procedures....while at the same time his back stages became more and more elaborate, his off site residence larger and more elaborate...ie australia....or anywher for that matter. ashrams come and go for his convenience only...remember DUO or unity school...examples of things created for his convenience or that of his family (really his own, often to keep his kids and wife happy so he could do whatever).

dettmers will comment probably on the money thing...250K in a darshan line in austrailia...that was about 1 and 1/2 fast cars...maybe two tanks of fuel in the 707...another great convenient toy for him and his desire to fly and pilot...to be the youngest 707 certified pilot...and broadripple for the rest of us. (yes, me too for most of the time) the list is endless.